how do you know if the solutions to a quadratic equation are inside, outside, on, inside and on, or outside and on the parabola??

Astudent draws two parabolas both parabolas cross the x axis at (-4,0) and (6,0) the y intercept of the first parabolas is (0,-12). the y intercept of the second parabola is (0,-24) what is the positive difference between the a values for the two functions that describe the parabolas